No one expected Juventus coach Antonio Conte to call it quits so close to the start of a new season. After three enormously successful years in charge of the bianconeri, he's given the club just weeks to find a replacement, supposedly after a disagreement with the club's hierarchy over their transfer dealings.
Antonio Conte was the reason for Juventus’ turnaround
Antonio Conte’s departure has left Juventus’ future rather uncertain.
Valerio Pennicino
It’s going to be nigh-on impossible for Juve to find as good a replacement as Conte at this time of the year. As Juventus blog Black & White & Read All Over writes, the bianconeri owe a massive chunk of their recent success to their departing coach:
Conte was the No. 1 reason by far that Juventus were back to the top of Serie A the past three seasons. Three years, three titles. Juve were in the dark ages before Conte arrived. After he took over as manager, it was like everything was fixed and Juve were back to being Juve again.
But with that, there was always the rumors that he didn’t have the same kind of vision as the club’s directors - mainly Beppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici. Juve bringing Conte back despite him still having a year left on his current contract was looked at as a huge victory because of all the speculation surrounding his future.
Without doubt, Conte has worked wonders at Juventus. Before he took charge, they were nothing more than a mid-table side with lofty ambitions of European qualification, still struggling in the aftermath of relegation to Serie B for involvement in the Calciopoli scandal. Now, they’re the undisputed powerhouse of Italian football, and are favourites to romp to a fourth consecutive title.
Or at least they were.
It’s not just Conte’s departure that will come as a crushing blow to their ambitions of becoming a genuine European contender. Sure, Conte has proven himself to be a good coach, but with such a strong squad at his disposal at Juve, it’s not yet possible to say he’s a genuinely great coach. What could harm Juve even more, is the potential exodus of players that could follow.
If the rumours are to be believed, Conte's resignation was forced by the imminent sale of Juve's star midfielder Arturo Vidal to Manchester United, despite the coach having explicitly demanded he be retained. Now both are leaving, the side is not only losing a coach that had created an effective tactical framework with which the squad was familiar, but also one of their most prized assets.
It sends a powerful message that Juventus don’t have plans to compete with Europe’s genuinely elite clubs. A message that won’t sit well with the bianconeri’s genuinely elite players. Losing Conte and Vidal will harm Juventus, and it’s very hard to now imagine them continuing dominating Serie A like they have over the last few seasons. It’s even harder to see them challenging for the Champions League.
For players like Paul Pogba, who could get into just about any side on the planet, that's not going to impress. Losing Conte is a massive blow, but the real fear is that worse could yet follow.
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